How to set your Amplifier

If you want a good sound out of an amp, balancing the equalisation properly makes a BIG difference.

It's surprising how people don't know how to use the equaliser, and end up just turning everything all the way to 10 so that all the tone is drowned out, and then wonder why they still need more, to get the sound to "cut through".

Here's how I get the best from an amp. (You could give it a try, see what happens).

Turn your amp to a clean sound, with no reverb, put the bass, mid and treble on your amp all the way to 0.

Bass.
Put your guitar pick up in neck position, and strum a power chord on the low E and A string. Start turning the dial on the up up, until you hear a "swell" in sound. Leave the dail at the point that you hear the swell (you may have to wiggle the dial to locate the point)

Mid.
Put your guitar switch in the middle position. Strum a powerchord on the middle strings (D and G), start wiggling the mid dial, until you find the point where the sound "swells", leave it there.

Treble
Guitar switch at bridge position. Strum a powerchord on the B and E (thinnest) strings. Turn the treble dial until you hear a swell in sound. Leave it there.


Once you have set the equaliser at these points ( you may be surprised at how low some of the settings may be), you've optimised your amp sound for the room that you are in. If you swap guitars, you'll need to do it again. If move your amp, you'll need to do it again. But from this foundation, you can add reverb, delays, distortion, whatever, it should still have a good quality of tone throughout.

You should find that you do not have to use so much volume, to "bring out" the tone you are looking for. And you should be able to get a good "clear" (as opposed to muddy ) distorted sound, without having to resort to lots and lots of overdrive.

See how it goes.


Tank

Any thoughts on getting a good balance when playing with others?

Yes. More volume does not mean that you will be heard.

The reason that most people have a hard time in a group is that some of the frequencies they're using for their sound is the same as frequencies that other members of the group are using.

Usually for most venues nowadays, I won't have much more than a 50 watt 1x12. I don't need it, neither should you for somewhere with less than 200 people.

Here's the trick:

When sound checking, listen carefully to the other members of the group. Ask yourself are parts of the sound of your guitar getting drowned out by any of the other instruments? If its everytime the drummer hits a cymbal/snare, you're competing on treble. If its everytime the vocalist/snare/toms/rhythm guitar plays, you are competing on mid ranges. If everytime the bass drum, or your bass guitar plays a note, your sound disappears, you are competing for bass frequency.

To fix it, don't turn the volume up, they will just play louder. You need to start adjusting your equaliser, until the swell in your sound moves out of range of the instrument that you are competing with. You may have to lower it quite drastically to achieve this. Even better, if your amp has a frequency sweeper, use it, that's what it's for

The clever bit.
If you listened to your guitar on it's own, it might sound a bit "weird". However, when you add in the other instruments in your band, it sounds fine again. This is because the frequency you have just "removed" from your sound, is being carried by the other instruments. AND, when you crank the volume up, you still aren't clashing with the rest of the group, so they don't tend to play louder to compensate.

It takes time and practice to get it right all the time. But I guarantee you'll get out of the loop of "I turned up so the bass player turned it up, then the drummer hit harder, next thing you know, the venue were asking us to leave".

Remember that recordings are mixed to balance perfectly, and the tone and volume of a guitar can change 6 or 7 times though a track, but you wouldn't be able to notice. When bands play live, you generally get one sound, so make damn sure it's the right one.

/Tank